Aug 16,2007 00:00 by
UPI BEIJING -- A new media crackdown has begun in China after a television reporter was accused of fabricating a story about dumpling makers, a report said Wednesday.

The new campaign is directed against what China calls “false news reports, unauthorized publications and bogus journalists,” The New York Times reported, adding it comes two months before the start of the once-every-five-years Communist Party congress.

The tough measures were confirmed by the government’s official web site, the report said. In the dumpling maker case, the journalist was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $130 for what the government claimed was a fabricated story that cardboard was being used as filler.

The Times, quoting the official Community party newspaper People’s Daily, said the state administration of radio, film and television, and the state press and publication administration jointly warned that anyone who "intentionally fabricated news that caused public anxiety and tarnished the nation’s image would be harshly dealt with or even prosecuted if they broke the law.” Their news organizations would also be penalized.

News outlets have also been told to provide hot lines to allow the public to report any false news accounts, the Times said.